The invention relates to life support systems, and more particularly to life support systems wherein the system is augmented by regenerative interchange between human and plant life cycles to achieve an integrated operation with air, water, and waste processing and supplemental food production having maximized reliability, regenerative operation, reduced consumables and fresh harvest capability.
Manned missions to the planet Mars are included in the present NASA plans for the first decade of the next century (See S. K. Ride, "LEADERSHIP and America's Future in Space." Report to NASA Administrator, Aug. 1987). The first step of human exploration and eventual settlement on Mars will probably be series of fast missions ("sprints"), with a duration of just over one year, round trip (See "Piloted Sprint Missions to Mars." Science Applications International Corporation, Report No. SAIC-87/1908, Nov. 1987). Those missions will constitute a new problem for the life support system design, because no other mission has been flown, nor will be flown in the near future, with such a long duration of time during which no resupply of consumables is possible. Regenerative operations will have to be used extensively for the reduction of the amounts of food, water, hydrogen, and oxygen to be carried in storage aboard the spacecraft. The conceptual design of the life support for such a mission is given and analyzed, down to the level of the particular physical-chemical subsystems involved. Space Station-type hardware has been chosen when applicable as a basis for the analysis.
It has been assumed heretofore that for such sprint missions, an extensive use of bio-regenerative life support (encompassing air, water, and food/waste processing by plants) would not be adopted. However, the implications of having a greenhouse aboard the spacecraft have been considered and analyzed in terms of its interface with the overall life support system. Further implications, such as the need for microbiological control at the humans/plants interfaces, are presented in a paper on bio-isolation co-authored by the inventor (See M. Novara and H. S. Cullingford, "Bio-isolation Analysis of Plants and Humans in a Piloted Mars Sprint." 18th Intersociety Conference on Environmental Systems, July, 11-13, 1988).